Sean Oakley

Pre-school teacher and PSC Press Officerin Langley, United Kingdom

Early years practitioner (level 3), currently working as a Forest School teacher in the Bracknell area.

After journalism training with the Press Association was offered a position as a news & politics contributor at the Daily Confidential (TDC) magazine, a lifestyle and current affairs website based in California but with a global purview. Then, became an educator and took up a role with Childbase (the best early years organisation in the UK according to the Times) and agency cover work.

Now I try to bring a rare perspective, as one of the few post-Zionist thinkers around, to the PSC's Slough committee as its press officer. Attracted the attention of RCIR in this role and wrote a piece for them in the magazine Mondoweiss about the football club Beitar Jerusalem's problems with far-right fans.

My dedication to non-profitable causes and social issues is a reflection of my passion for education, teaching children well is clearly the greatest investment one can ever make in a society's future. And my commitment to progressive causes should also show my belief in anti-discrimination and education that (as cliched as it is) leaves no child behind.

Today, not unlike during my time studying undergrad philosophy, my primary interest is in political philosophy and ethics/religious philosophy. Since leaving Humanist Students my intellectual focus on Buddhism shifted a great deal to other mystic traditions, especially Sufi turuq that emphasise an inner relationship with the Highest Being and Infinite; good thing too, as while my focus was always on humanism and secularism, an explicit avowal of neo-deism (still non-theistic, but certainly not atheistic) and my unique theology may have been seen by some colleagues at Humanists UK as counter-productive.

Being passionate about separation of church and state, religious equality and freedom, religious progressivism, and neohumanist ethics, I started my politically engaged life as an volunteer with Humanist Students (then the AHS). Enjoyed three years as president of Reading University's branch (one of those involved with the 'blasphemous pineapple' affair... long story).

Other actions included lending a hand to groups such as the People's Assembly Against Austerity (PAAA) and the Stop the War Coalition (StW), while living in London; and working with particularly the Labour Party or its sitting councillors and affiliates like Momentum when they're allied to pro-social agendas, since I moved to Berkshire.